Tag Archives: mayor trial

Last week, former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was finally convicted on 24 charges, including racketeering, extortion, bribery, mail fraud, and filing false tax returns. The 5 month trial also found Bobby Ferguson, a contractor and friend of Kilpatrick who was given several city contracts illegally, guilty on 9 charges. Kilpatricks father Bernard was also found guilty on one tax charge. Kwame is facing 20 years in prison and is being held without bail as they consider him a possible flight risk. He is currently awaiting sentencing, but no date has been set for the hearing.

Ferguson was given $84 million in contracts by Kwame Kilpatrick, which forced people to hire Ferguson as a subcontractor if they wanted to be awarded city deals.

Count One: (All Three) Racketeering conspiracy: Joining together to conduct a criminal enterprise, which in this case the prosecution dubbed the “Kilpatrick Enterprise,” an alleged scheme of kickbacks to enrich themselves using the mayor’s office. It’s punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Kwame Kilpatrick has also been found guilty on one wire fraud count, as well as one tax count and several mail fraud charges.

Kilpatrick left Detroit’s City Hall in 2008 after pleading guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice related to a text message sex scandal with a former employee. He served about a year in jail for those crimes and agreed to pay the city of Detroit $1 million in restitution. In August 2011, only a week after he was paroled, Creative Publishing Consultants Inc out of Tennessee released a book that was co-written by Kilpatrick, titled Surrendered: The Rise, Fall & Revelation of Kwame Kilpatrick. However, the Wayne County prosecutor pushed the state courts to see to it that any proceeds that Kwame would have received from the book go to repaying the $1 million he owes to the city of Detroit.

In January the ex-mayor also spent a weekend in jail for violating his parole by not reporting cash gifts he received in 2012.